Some History Timelines

Initial Costs and Funding

FanFiction.Net was created by Xing Li while he was a student at University of California, Los Angeles. The original servers for the site were connected to his then-employer. This employer "recouped part of the cost in order to use it as a test for how well their servers worked." [5]

When these costs rose to over $2000 a month, Xing Li's employer wanted compensation. [need cite] Xing Li tried to cover these costs with paid memberships, something that was a failure. [6]

Features

FF.Net has features beyond story archiving that provide tools for readers and writers, some simply useful, others giving the site a social side that lets fans connect. The site allows readers to assemble lists of their favorite stories and authors, which function as public bookmarks and rec lists, similar to Delicious social bookmarking. It has also convenient story and author alert features to keep up with new chapters of WIPs and new stories from particular authors. Users can also collect stories in community lists based on the interests of the community maintainers, a function often similar to thematic lists which makes it easier for readers to deal with the large number of stories, especially in popular fandoms. Another useful feature is the stats page, where users can see how many people opened their story and where these readers come from.

FF.Net also allows readers to post reviews on stories, a community building feature that other automated archives lacked at the time when FFN was first established. FF.Net also has a public message board system, an online dictionary and beta reader services.

Pairings were added as a filtering option in October 2013. (Previously, you could mark a fic with characters, but there was no way to distinguish between pairings and non-pairings of those characters.)[7]

Despite its huge popularity, large user base and wide ranging fandom representation, FF.net has a reputation for being indiscriminate in story quality among members of many different fannish circles. Large portions of LiveJournal-based fandom, mailing list-based fandom, the Television Without Pity forums, and Godawful Fan Fiction have all been known to look askance at the site. Because of this reputation, FFN is sometimes referred to as "the Pit of Voles"[8], "The Pit", or other derogatory nicknames. There even exists a hate community for the archive, established after a change of ToS in 2004.[9]

However, FF.Net's absence of quality control is viewed by many as a benefit; it gives everyone a chance to express themselves. Unlike moderated archives, FF.Net does not employ any active means of assessing story quality. Its guidelines do require basic spell-checking and grammar quality, but the site does not enforce these requirements in any comprehensive way.

Many feel that FF.Net is under-appreciated among the fan community:

"And contrary to the prejudices held by the outspoken LJ lot, not everything on FFN is shit. Most of it, sure, but I developed a keen sense of judging a story by its summary and never had the problem of accidentally reading badfic. Sure, you'll usually have to slog through pages of trash before finding the good stuff, but there are jewels on FFN and I was frequently annoyed by how fic that deserved attention didn't get it because people convinced themselves that only idiots posted to the pit.

I know that there are people who have legitimate issues with FFN and their policies. That's fair enough. I know that there are people who are on AO3 mainly because of the politics behind it - in which case, rock on! But then there is the crowd that won't go near FFN because it's allegedly a simmering pool of fourteen year olds and all the fic is shit, and that - that is patently untrue and incredibly annoying. FFN has a much bigger and much older archive than AO3, it is easier to navigate and - this is an important part - it's got open registration. The only time I can remember FFN being somehow hostile towards its users would be when it moved to ban smut and some other genres of questionably prosaic nature.

To return to the lady introducing the muggles: I wanted very badly to ask the reason why she was so studiously avoiding FFN. Not linking fic there could be coincidence, but talking about AO3 but not even acknowledging where AO3 came from (FFN's smut ban, as an extension of Strikethrough) - that's a boycott, and I'd go as far as to say that it is unfair to the very muggles she sought to invite to the club. Because dear madams: You're missing out if you never go to The Pit."[10]

Past Moderators

A FanFiction.Net staff get-together in December 2000. Xing Li is in the back, on Santa Claus's right.[11]Michela Ecks is in the back with the glasses. The other members are unidentified.

Anime/Manga: Naruto is the largest fandom in the anime category, but dozens of other popular anime series have sections with at least several thousand fics. Hence, while anime makes up only 19% of the fandoms on FF.Net, it accounts for 31% of the fic.

Books: FF.Net users can specify whether they are writing for the book or movie version of a canon, but each fandom only appears in the index page for one media type. 80% of the fics in the book category are for Harry Potter, Twilight, and Lord of the Rings.

Comics: Most of the comics fics are for US superhero comics, many of which also have separate sections for cartoons or live action movies. Some less mainstream comics also have large sections: The Jhonen Vasquez (author of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac) section accounts for about 5% of comics fic.

Games: The Games category includes a wide variety of computer, video, and role playing games, but the majority of the fics are from games like the Final Fantasy franchise and Kingdom Hearts, which are associated with anime fandom.

Misc: The Wrestling section is the largest.[20] The Misc category also houses a variety of crossover sections and things like radio dramas and mythology.

Movies: FF.Net lists many fandoms under their book format, so the movie category is relatively small. Some of the bigger fandoms in it are major franchises like Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and High School Musical. Some older or less famous movies like Newsies and Labyrinth also have large sections. Films from outside the US are not well represented.

Plays/Musicals:RENT fic makes up 40% of this category, Wicked fic another 21%. Most of the fandoms are for Broadway productions, but Shakespeare also has a large section.

The site will be 100% ColdFusion for those techies out there. In another words, it will be FULLY automated. Ranking, Search, Submission, Editing, etc just to name a few. I'm working overtime to have the site open to the web community by November 8th.. (Just in time for the new Xfiles season ;-p) I would like to make it THE best possible fanfiction portal on the net and to do so I would love to hear some comments/suggestions from all the writers here on this newsgroup to what functions you would like to have. Your input is very critical and will help to shape the site. Thanks for your time...

Hi everyone, I'm very happy to announce that www.fanfiction.net is now officially open!!!!!! And we have done it 3 weeks ahead of projected finish date.

While everyone trick-or-treated we were hard at working debugging the site =) Here is what the site has to offer:

1) 100% automated system for readers and especially for authors
2) Author profile with advanced security tracking to ensure that no one else
can submit under another person's acct.
3) Dynamic rating system for all the stories
4) Author has the option to not release their email address.
5) Top20 fanfiction feature based on the rating system.
6) Author can modify/delete any of their stories
and much much more...

As far as we know this is the first and only fully automated fanfiction website where there is no waiting period for any and all changes/submissions. Everyone here at www.xcelpro.com is damn proud of our accomplishment. Actually, it's only the two of us... =) Well, enough of my talk..go see it for yourselves....Any and all comments are welcomed.. Xing

Some Comments to Its Introduction

[Nascent]: This is a nice idea and the webpage is well-designed. It has features that I'd like to see Gossamer acquire, including self-archiving. However, the advertising makes me VERY nervous. Xing, are you getting clickthru payback on those banners? Because if you are, you may be jeopardizing fanfic's nonprofit status. Until this is clarified, I'd encourage authors not to archive here. Nascent

[Xing Li]: We are currently addressing Nascent's concern and we have put up a msg on our homepage to reflect our commitment. http://www.fanfiction.net Please send any and all comments to my email address. Thanks... Xing

[Imajiru]: While I believe that Xing's concept of providing a central archive for multi-fandom fiction is a wonderful thought, and I commend her (?) for her efforts and obvious hard work in setting it up, there are several reasons why I will NOT archive my fiction there, and will discourage others from archiving there as well. First of all, in response to the issue of the banner advertising used on the site, Xing says:

>we have put up a msg on our homepage to reflect our commitment.

The aforementioned message states that "The ad space you see above is used to cover the costs of the server." --To me, this is still a dicey concept, in that revenues are being raised AT ALL. Most of the fan fiction archivists I know pay for their web space out of their own pockets -- or at the very most, solicit donations from within fandom to keep the archives going. A flat-out link exchange (you show my banner, I show yours) is one thing, but the idea of mixing commercial revenues with fan fiction... just makes me acutely uneasy.

Also: The author's registration page states that by registering, you agree to the following: "You give Fanfiction.net the nonexclusive rights to publish your material and the right to reject any material submitted." Excuse me... publish WHERE? On this web page? On other web pages? In fanzines? On a CD-ROM? This is entirely too nebulous for my comfort, and I'm not about to agree to these terms.

(Not to mention, the statement about getting permission from collaborating authors COULD be interpreted to mean the Powers That Be who wrote the show in the first place, and I don't think that's going to happen...)

Someone else I know mentioned that the inclusion of Star Wars in the categories is an EXTREMELY bad idea, because the Powers That Be in SW fandom are notorious for being AGAINST fanfic in any form... Fanfic is a grey area, and exists only because no one has yet squashed it. Maybe we could win a court battle, if it ever came to that, but... who among us has the kind of money it'd take to pay the lawyers? I'm leery of ANYthing that draws too much attention to fan fiction, and this site seems to be designed to do exactly that.

And finally -- what's with the cookies? The main purpose of using cookies is to track visitors to a site, and frankly, I don't want to be tracked. I have my browser set to warn before accepting a cookie, and I rarely choose to accept them, and this is not one of those times.

...Lest this e-mail be seen as a blanket condemnation of the site: The ability for the author to self-archive their work is a wonderful thing, the potential for browsing works from multiple fandom and for searching through fic and rating fic are very well-done. And the overall concept, of creating a central 'home' for fan fiction on the net, is a laudable one; for one thing, it could provide a place for fanfics that would otherwise go unnoticed, in smaller fandoms than our own. BUT... I've been an XF fan for too long; I'm paranoid. I've watched FOX shut down too many websites -- none of them fanfic, *not yet*, but that could be only a matter of time. There are just too many things about this site, as it stands, that make me feel too uneasy to want to be a part of it.

Sorry, Xing; it's a lovely idea, and I wish I could be more positive about it, but the way things look now, I just can't. Imajiru[24]

[Mirage]: Wow, nice site. Glad to see you took down the $$$ banners, though. Face it, the money for your server is going to come out of your own pocket. Zines are another thing, since they're underground and people barely break even on them anyway.

I don't think it's the first automated place, though. It looks alot like FanFic.net. Same sort of instant upload and archiving with search features. But better designed. :-)

Hey, you know maybe fanfiction.net or FanFic.net and Gossamer Project people should team up...it would certainly reduce a lot of work for the poor Gossamer archivists.

[Xing]: I'm correct when I said that www.fanfiction.net is the first real-time automated and fanfiction archive system. The good folks over at www.fanfic.net have an automated system but it only runs periodically which kinds of defeats the whole purpose of having an automated system. You be the judge. =)

[Maie]: A FAQ forum would be a very good idea. Some users who read the R&G/ToS may not understand some of the terms and which topics they refer (e.g. interactive stories such as suggestions for the next chapter) and may not understand what they're agreeing too when they click the "I have read and agreed to these terms" button. Also do you have an email I could contact you with? I can't seem to get a response from the support team :(

Some 1999 Updates by Xing Li

[April 19, 1999]:

Hi! Current Stats - 1,115 Fanfics Archived, 477 Authors, 110 Links: As you can tell by the stats, fanfiction.net is growing a very healthy pace. Readership is up 50% from 2 weeks ago! Archive your fanfics on

fanfiction.net and expand your audience reach. I just want to remind everyone to be constructive in terms of their
reviews/comments of fanfics on the site. I have came across a few reviews that was pretty harsh. The author/fanfic might be worthy of the lashing but it would be more constructive to say why it "sucked" rather attacking the author by the ways of, "What the hell were you thinking?", "You plagiarist!", "Lame", etc. This so called "plagiarist" was in fact innocent. Every author tries to write the best entertaining story possible and readers should show their gratitude by displaying some restraint in terms of personal attacks when reviewing fanfics on fanfiction.net. =)

Again, if you have any suggestions for the site just email me and I will do my best to meet your desires. Remember that your input shapes the future of fanfiction.net

I'm still looking for new entries for "Writer's Corner". Got a essay on the subject of fanfiction? Then email me the essay I will archive it! Until next time, adios! Xing [25]

[July 28, 1999]:

Hola fellow fanfic fanatics!

It has been a while since my last posting and here is a list of all the changes/additions to fanfiction.net.

1) New Java ChatRoom!! Enough said. hehe

2) Full-Text search! You can now search within ALL the archived fanfics. Very powerful tool I must say.

3) Moved to a new server so every page will now be MUCH faster!

4) Reorganized the Top20s so entries with more reviews will be ranked higher.

5) Streamlined navigation menu. Now everything is within reach. =)

I would like to take this moment and let everyone know that we are currently looking for creative editors who can spicy up the content on fanfiction.net. Here are the perks that comes with the job:

1) Real world experience. It's not often you get to work on a website with 360,000 (more than a third of a million) hits per month and growing. Great for anyone's resume.

2) Pride: You be helping to shape/secure the future of fanfiction.

3) Totally voluntary environment that promotes creativity. We are not slave drivers. ;-)

4) You personal email address @fanfiction.net.

FanFiction.Net is totally non-profit so no one gets paid a dime but I'm sure the experience to be gained is priceless. =)
Until next time...

Controversies

Over the years in operation, FanFiction.Net was the center of many controversies: some include copyright issues, control of content, service instability, and profit.

First Automated Archive

It was touted by its creator to be the first automated fan fiction archive. Of course, the moment Xing Li said this, there were nitpicks and disagreements:

[Mirage]: Wow, nice site. Glad to see you took down the $$$ banners, though. Face it, the money for your server is going to come out of your own pocket. Zines are another thing, since they're underground and people barely break even on them anyway.

I don't think it's the first automated place, though. It looks alot like FanFic.net. Same sort of instant upload and archiving with search features. But better designed. :-)

Hey, you know maybe fanfiction.net or FanFic.net and Gossamer Project people should team up...it would certainly reduce a lot of work for the poor Gossamer archivists. [29]

[Xing]: I'm correct when I said that www.fanfiction.net is the first real-time automated and fanfiction archive system. The good folks over at www.fanfic.net have an automated system but it only runs periodically which kinds of defeats the whole purpose of having an automated system. You be the judge. =) [30]

From a Simpson's fan:

[xing li wrote: As far as we know this is the first and only fully automated fanfiction website where there is no waiting period for any and all changes/submissions.]

Uh, wrong.

The Simpsons Writers Consortium is fully automated for members/authors --and allows you to post scripts and give feedback instantaneously. Now, you can change your information immediately. AND--the content is 100% pure Simpsons. You can't beat that =) (This site has been open for a full month now, so no discussion as to who copied who).

Let me clarify something. This person's website is for FINISHED scripts of several TV shows--many of them from Fox. [31]

The Simpsons Writers Consortium is an online AUTOMATED writer's group, where members post WORKS IN PROGRESS for critique by other members. Each member works on a project until complete--and the script is posted (after a majority vote--Is the script as good as it can be?)

SWC's purpose is manyfold: To sharpen each person's writing/critiquing abilities; to learn the craft of writing; to create quality Simpsons scripts; and, ultimately, to change the mind of the Simpsons Production office about hiring readers for fan-fiction.

Star Trek had their fan-fiction readers, and some fans even had scripts produced! (John Whelpley--"Suddenly Human", David Kemper--"Peak Performance") Legal hassles are a cop-out. If one screwball can't make a difference, maybe MANY can. We are over thirty members strong; come join today--it's free. No banners anywhere on the site. There are SEVEN works in progress. [32]

Legal Assistance

In June 2000, Xing Li asked for general legal help and support:

FanFiction.Net is a 1.2 million visitor/month online community specializing in the archiving and publication of fan-fiction: stories based on characters/environments from popular medium. As of today, we have over 26,000 fanfics archived and are expected to double that amount within 2 months. It is a hriving place for aspiring writers as well as those that write for entertainment. Example: A romantic story between Buffy and Angel written by an avid "Buffy:The Vampire Slayer" fan.

We need all the legal help we can as the traffic continues to explode. FanFiction.Net is not a business but rather an online archive and community. We do not take in any money and thus we do not have the money to pay for consulting fees. Everyone here has poured their heart into something they truly believe in and love.

In return, you have a rare chance to deal with cutting-edge internet issues and receive the thanks from millions of fans. Fanfiction is a very controversial online legal issue today.

If you or your friends are interesting to help out individually or as a team, we would more than appreciate it.

Advertising and Profit

Many of you expressed concerns about our "ad" policy to support the cost of
our server and we even thought about have any "profit" from ads given to a charity using a voting scheme. But, we decided to abolish the ad scheme altogether and in the process of revamping it into an automated fanfiction site banner exchange program several of you had suggested. Please support www.fanficion.net and help it grow. [34]

The site today relies on advertising, making many fans question its non-profit stance and this relationship to fandom and profit.

Downtime

FanFiction.Net suffered from frequent downtimes. Sometimes these downtimes lasted for a week or more. There were frequent posts to many Usenet groups over the years which asked for more information [35], and commiseration from other fans.

One such downtime was in July 2003: "July 8th, 2003 - FanFiction.Net is currently in the process of acquiring server parts for a scheduled system-wide upgrade in 2 weeks. We are hoping this upgrade will significantly reduce or remove the "server is too busy" message during peak traffic hours." Two comments from fans regarding this downtime: "It was up but it's down again. :p Anyone care to start a betting pool? The person who guesses closes to the actual time FF.net is back up and stable wins." And "Perhaps with this upgrade they will become more stable?...time will tell.." [36]

These long times became advantages for other fanfiction archive sites, as desperate and bored fans, explored other sites and expanded their interests. FictionAlley was one such benefiter from the extensive downtime in the summer and fall of 2001. [37] From an exchange in October 2001:

[NAPPA]: Does any one have addresses for good HP fanfiction. I am specially looking for Lily/James love/hate and Harry/Harmione stories. I have gone on the fanfiction.net but they are down for so long sometimes it makes me positively crazy. Please help me............
[Heidi]: At FictionAlley, we've set up a new page with ways to search by author, ship, lead characters and summaries - we will be adding full text searching this week. I know it's shameless promotion (but we are noncommercial, so there's that) - visit the Page O'Links (which I personally call FicAll)... [38]

Glitches

FanFiction.Net is notorious for occasional breakdowns when a part of its users are unable to access certain features of the site. These breakdowns were termed "Glitches" by on-site forum communities. At times, the circumstances in which a glitch would appear are strange:

A public announcement about an older glitch, now fixed.

A completed "successful database upgrade".

An uninformative staff service announcement with typos.

Most glitches are not announced and take up to two weeks to fix. They are rarely fixed over the weekend and continue till the next week.

Glitches affect different parts of the site. Depending on severity, they may involve:

The statistics feature: fanfic writers would see they have zero readers, but still receive reviews.

FanFiction.Net goes into read-only mode.

Beta Readers: members cannot browse for beta readers, and get a "FanFiction.Net Error Type 1" window.[39]

Site content: story chapters, reviews and forum posts submitted after the glitch started would flash, appear and disappear during page reloads. Forum communities know it as "the post eating glitch".

Story submission: writers cannot post new chapters or stories in certain categories. It was called a "type 2 error" by site staff in March, 2011, and lasted since March 18 till March 31. Tech savvy members found a way around this glitch.[40]

Login area: members are unable to login. The site goes into read-only mode. Most recently, it happened from April 9 to April 10, 2011.

Formatting Problems

The uploading software of FF.Net strips stories of certain elements, such as hyperlinks, indentations or double spacing. This forces fans to create creative line breaks, such as repeated pairing acronyms. Other fans post tutorials for inserting the desired characters into the text.[41] In 2004, the site was criticized for eating words and making whole sentences disappear in uploaded chapters due to bugs in the site's QuickEdit word processor. Since then, the editing software has been updated several times and renamed to Document Manager.

In 2007, FanFiction.Net's document manager did not allow creative separators. Only the site-default horizontal line was accepted as a separation technique between parts of a chapter.

Changes in software up to 2010 applied only to works submitted after a certain date. The changes also used to impose restrictions such as removing square brackets and asterisks from stories and summaries. As a result, older stories could have different, more varied formatting (classic with indentations instead of block) and bigger character sets. In 2009, FFN even imposed a technical ban on repeating numbers in reviews. This caused confusion as numbers like 100 and 1000 would show up as 10.

This has changed in 2010 when the editor became less restrictive. Special characters like the asterisk were allowed again and the review issue was resolved. Also, 2010 was the first time a change in editing software affected older works. Stories using indentations were reformatted into block style, misshaping some of them[42]. Certain characters such as square brackets ] disappeared from all story summaries while they remained visible in the author's login area.

In 2011, FanFiction.Net kept updating the hyperlink filter, with mixed results. Links to the site's forums were not automatically deleted from messages and reviews, while informal references to the site such as FanFiction.Net became impossible, with text being changed to include a full hyperlink to the main page.

Staff Problems

FanFiction.Net is considered understaffed by many users who try to reach member support but fail to receive any replies to a query. This is influenced by the amount of traffic the domain receives daily, including requests for new categories, inserting canon characters and questions about the site and abuse reports. Another image of the workload was the ticket-based support system in January 2005. Support answered every question sent, but the queue was two months on average. James is the only known staff member, who responds to emails and deals with abuse reports.

Xing Li, the site's owner, has apparently not been seen or heard from in years.

Content Guidelines

Ban on Fic Based on the Works of Specific Authors

Beginning in late 1990s to early 2000s, FFN banned fanworks based on specific authors. These bans are still in place, as of 2017:

"FanFiction respects the expressed wishes of the following authors/publishers and will not archive entries based on their work. Failure to comply with site rules will result in the removal of stories and/or suspension of account.

2001 RPF Ban

Once upon a time, FF.Net allowed fanfiction about real people. In June 2001, there were more than 5,000 'N Sync stories on the site. In September 2002, an announcement was made disallowing Reality TV RPF (along with the NC-17 fic, see below) as of April 12, 2003. Actor RPF had never been allowed on the site. [46]

"Many months ago FanFiction.Net introduced a form of ban for real-person based stories (RPS): actor fiction. After evaluating that ban and receiving many responses as a result of that ruling, it has been decided that we need to extend the rule to all real-person stories to keep it consistent. The affected categories are:

All Music Groups

Misc >> Sports

TV Shows >> Big Brother, Survivor, Who's Line is it anyway?....

Please note that all the stories effected by the ruling above have not been removed. They will be retained until October 12th, 2002. If the changes apply to you, please login and use the backup feature to create a personal copy on your local computer."[47]

However; as early as 2008-2009, RPF experienced a hidden resurgence. The fics, mostly J-Pop and K-Pop, are posted in the Screenplays subcategory. Unlike the rest of the site, where English dominates most categories, these undercover RPF fics are more likely to be in a language other than English. Indonesian fics number around 1,400 (almost all of them RPF) compared with 1,300 fics (mixed, mostly non-RPF) written in English.[48]

Recently (July 2011), actions have been taken by a few Indonesian authors to rectify this problem by notifying RPF writers of their violation of rules, posting examples of 'right' fics in the Screenplays subcategory, and notifying the support staff. The actions are met with fierce resistance from established RPF authors. However, a few RPF writers relented and, as of writing, had begun deleting their RPF. [citation needed]

The ban has never been 100% effective, and it is easy to find RPF hiding in plain sight in various fictional fandom categories.[49]

2010 Forum Purge

On the night of November 25, 2010, FanFiction.Net purged its forums, deleting threads not updated for 9 months. This was announced less than 10 hours before an automated engine mauled through forums by creation date. During the night after Thanksgiving, while most of the site's chiefly American population slept and was away from a computer, over 60,000 forums were affected. As a result, 22 million posts (66% of all posts ever made) were deleted during the purge. Instead of "reducing clutter", the intent posted on the front page, the event resulted in thousands of completely empty forums with no archive or backlog of any sort. Important forum discussion, sentimental and cultural value formed in forums since they were introduced in 2005 was lost. Only forum subscription statistics showed there used to be content.[52]When the purge completed, 90% of the General forums were empty.[53] The site took no action about forums with no posts prior to the purge. It completely changed the way users viewed their forums, from a safe haven, to something entirely temporary.[54]

On the same day, the site announced purging Personal Messages. This process took more than two days to finish, and some users were able to feverishly back up their old correspondence. After the event, users expected better service, or another type of compensation, but received none. The site is yet to keep its promise made on November 26 to bring mobile forums "in a few days"[55][56]

The original announcement:

News: November 26th, 2010 -- Please note at 1AM US Pacific (PST) time, we will perform several matainance actions which will result in the temporary downtime of forum posting for about 30 minutes.

We will also at this time introduce an auto-delete feature of removing PM message with send timestamp of older than 9 months. The 9 months freshness limit will be enforced for both PM messages and forum topics to ensure fast response time for these systems. For perspective, there are 17 million pm messages currently in the system and we need a self-cleaning system to move forward.

Lastly, both forums and pm/private messaging feature will come to the mobile site within a couple of days. [57]

One fan's response:

Since the previous six-month period for forums was, in fact, an error, and the last untouched date in forums was February 20, 2010 which is nine months away, they fixed the announcement from the 25th and are using the same filter on your personal messages.

FanFiction.Net introduced an inbox feature in the middle of 2009, June 14th (if the timer didn't mess up), so we could see all our personal messages (PMs) on one page without a fuss. It was a very convenient feature for those of us keen on keeping the actual email tidy, and it let everyone keep track of PM conversation easily. The problem is that FFN created a false sense of security. "You no longer have to save your messages because we save them for you" or something like that. Now, that security is lifted and replaced with shock. Literate Union members petitioned to the administration for more time to preserve personal conversation history. Personal messages, like other types of personal stuff are an emotional and often important part of fandom history. It's rare to see someone not care about their old doodles and exchanges with other fans. This is their past, and a bit of nostalgia is usually present. Erasing these messages would be taking away something fans value and love. First lessons in writing, gaining new friends in the writing world and many other cherishable moments disappear if FFN deems them too old for the site.

It's what makes fandom history so difficult to document. You might care about not repeating mistakes you've done in the past, but if the admin doesn't care, good luck and F U. What's interesting is that they're using the scissors on everyone on the site like some communist state: "Your hair must be this short to continue." If you're out of server space, get rid of trollfics, pay attention to plagiarist requests and, for goodness sakes, weed your own backyard. You don't bomb a city to make a parking lot. Besides, if FFN doesn't fail anytime soon (their domain registration expires in September 2011), they'll soon be out of server space again. Unless they're expecting the number of new members to drop, so they never again have a greater amount of PMs archived, the ordeal is pointless. Though, if they hired a consultancy firm to get easy fix solutions, they must know what they're doing.

And the amount of discontent it's going to cause. I don't know about you, but I've spent an hour backing up my PMs this morning. Tomorrow, I'm going to find the reviews I've sent throughout my stay on the site. Heavens forbid the site decides to flip off old reviews or stories, but one can't be too careful in this situation.

One thing for sure, I'm staying on FFN. They might not have done something agreeable this time, but this doesn't compare with ownership wars or emotional mod fights that happen in other archives I'd rather not name.

Edit: It's 9:30 AM GMT+0, and I've lost 20 PMs. 9:45, the number increases to 50. In two minutes the number of deleted PMs goes up from 1178353 to 1204467. [58]

2004 Script-Format Ban

"FanFiction.Net" banned script format on July 27, 2004.

July 27th -- FanFiction.Net Content Guidelines have been updated to reduce the apparent confusion of two rules:

1. Chat and script format are the same. We have not allowed chat/script format for years.

2. Choose your adventure and second person/you based are interactive entries. We do not accept interactive stories.

A fan's comment:

Sure, as always, members have said "FFN has changed, and we're not going to post there anymore," but the collective "we" was a silly generalisation that had no effect, and the site grew. Just as it did in 2002 and 2010.

Now, this is where the factuality ends. You probably may want to know where the idea of the "ban" comes from. The site was different in 2004 and admins were closer to its users, so communication was more open and easier to get the juice from the top. There was a group called The Author Alliance, later referred to as The Alliance... back in the day. They were notorious for flaming and later removal of stories on the site. One of the 13 core members...I don't recall the name (could have been Super Solus, ReactionX or someone else) researched that script format (then allowed) as used in practice on FFN was no different from chat format, as used in IRC, IM (not allowed since the guidelines were created). Basically, before the announcement, members would contest that their work is scripted, not a roleplay session from online chatrooms. It was a common excuse, which caused bickering between opposing camps. Once the announcement, supposedly, based on that member's research, has been made, the site put a big fat cross on everything in similar formats. Three lines of script/chat in the author's note got your story down. Two lines, I'm guessing, could be considered as someone being daft with punctuation rather than a format issue.

The announcement set things straight very nicely, and the site made a big purge. For example, Sonic the Hedgehog lost some 30% of its weight in August. Dropping from over 5000 stories to about 3400. Stunning. Now, I actually wonder what the announcement entailed in theory. If chat = script, and chat was banned since the first guidelines (last months of 1998), script format was also banned. Then again, if it was banned, why was there arguing and unremoved stories? Why was Sonic the Hedgehog allowed to have 30% of its bulk being against the rules? It's really an interesting record when nearly a third of an archive is in violation of one rule, while you have numerous rules up. [59]

There are two prime reasons that 2nd person (you) based fics are not allowed.

The first, and most important reason is because it can be considered a form of child porn. Say, for example, you're reading a "You based fic" that goes along just fine for a few chapters, but then comes to a part with a lemon (sex scene), that story is having someone run their hands down your buddy, exploring your more intimate attributes, removing your clothes, laying you down, you get the idea, yes? Now lets say that you're 13 years old reading this story. The person responsible for writing said story is now guilty of child porn, and if an angry parent found out they could not only sue the site itself but also prosecute the writer and have them labeled as a sex offender for the rest of their life.

The other reason that Second person (you based) fics are not allowed is because they are often used for interactive stories. As in people send in reviews asking the author to write what they want, rather than going off of the actual authors own "imagination". [60]

2005 Songfic Ban

In addition, FanFiction.Net would like to address a growing problem. For whatever reason, some writers feel it's okay to copy-n-paste musical lyrics they have not written into their fiction. If you did not write it, do not post it. This has always been our policy. Please remove these entries immediately to avoid account closure.

One theory:

These issues involved Cease and Desist letters sent by the MPAA, alleging trademark infringement on the part of sites for using their ratings system. The other issue involved German record labels sending Cease and Desist letters to sites containing lyrics. These letters requested remuneration for every song which had the lyrics listed. While no fan fiction sites were targeted, a number of archives, including FanFiction.Net, pulled all songfics in order to ensure they would not be subjected to fines. [61]

I dunno, I think that's reasonable, especially after reading some people's songfics. =/ A lot of people don't give credit where it's due.
Not only that, many songfics are pretty bad anyway. Just stick to an original story instead of using someone else's words, ya know? [62]

Yeah, song fics suck...so this doesn't seem to bother me at all :lol: [63]

I'm not a big songfic fan, but it strikes me as a bit hypocritical that a site that is based off writing about things that are NOT by you all of a sudden cracks down in this manner. Couldn't they at least have put a warning first? Like: "If you are going to use song lyrics, please include the musical artist in the disclaimer." Or something.[64]

A disclaimer is always a good thing, though. I'm just surprised that some "authors" don't credit the artist.
Then again, here we are downloading free songs off engines like Kazaa and Napster (or at least we used to). [65]

That makes me really mad. I often use songs as a source of inspiration. As long as no one tries to steal credit for the lyrics, fanfiction.net should allow them to be used. The next time I use a song for inspiration, I just won't include it in my final draft, but doesn't that seem like I'm not giving credit to the artist? [66]

The one problem I see is that FF.net stands to lose 1/4th of their writers with a move like this. A lot of good authors (who might've done a songfic in their early careers) could get banned for this.
The site could collapse with these writers gone. Many could form their own fanficiton website to compete with FF.net (like Mediaminer and Freedom of Speech Fiction). [68]

"Words. That's what. They're going to take our words."

That's what the people running FF.Net are doing. In 2002, they deleted every NC-17 story on their site, probably in response to some irresponsible soccer moms who didn't bother monitoring what their kids did online and complained about the "pornographic" material. Most NC-17 stories --- the well-written ones, at least --- are not by any means pornographic. They lean more in the direction of erotica, sensual and romantic.

And now . . . in 2005 . . . they're going to delete the accounts of anyone who uses songs in their stories unless they delete those stories. 2002 was just the beginning. So far, their pattern is to get rid of certain types of fan fiction simply on account of a few punks who can't be bothered to write decent sex stories or give credit to the original artists whose songs they appropriated for their stories. I repeat, this is just the beginning. They are sliding down the long, slippery slope into Nazi-style tyranny.

My solution: Petition them. Our 1st Amendment rights give us the power to protest unfair practices of institutions and FF.Net is an institution that is currently engaging in unfair practices. Petition them. Show them that we aren't just going to capitulate to their every whim. [69]

I poured my heart and soul into these. Like hell I'm taking them down. [70]

Conflict, Defamation, and Flaming

FanFiction.Net has long tried to reduce user complaints caused by their peers' aggressive behaviour. Users are now able to report signed reviews for abuse and block unwanted users from contacting them.

However, the site removed "libel" as a forbidden practice from their ToS in 2008, and would not endorse petition movements such as letting writers delete offensive signed reviews on their own.[72] The staff took an idle stance during the flame war concerning The Author Alliance in 2004, when several thousand stories were removed in Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokemon fandoms, a deed Xing Li noticed in the site's article on AllExperts.[73] It refused to delete the account of Flame Rising in 2008, a site-wide flamer, who hosted a 700,000 post flamer forum, The Fireplace. As of 2010, the site takes no action against The Literate Union despite phone calls to the site's parent company to delete the LU members.Citation Needed

Fan Comments

A comment from about 2004:

The largest and most reknown (aka the "Pit of Voles") multifandom Mega-Archive. Tens of thousands, possibly millions, of stories in every conceivable fandom and of every conceivable genre. Granted, this can make it difficult to find the diamonds in the roughs, but they're there! Updated constantly by the authors themselves, it is a continuous source of fanfic for whatever your pleasure. When you're done reading a fic, don't hesitate to click on the menu at the bottom and Submit A Review! It's instantaneous feedback, no effort required -- what could possibly be better than that? Please note, however, that FF.Net no longer allows NC-17 fic of any variety to be archived. [74]

A comment from 2004:

Ff.net was way different back then- the stories were in alphabetical order and there were only like thirty pages of Harry Potter fan fiction. Each chapter was treated as its own story. You had to review before you could go any where else.

For awhile, ff.net even had message boards for each category. That was then the MS-characterization reared its head. I remember- the first post was : 'what is a Mary Sue' and it was explained.

It's amazing what has changed since then. The entire fandom has basically been revolutionized. It's so different than what it used to be. Fanfiction.net was the site, back then. Now it...isn't. [75]

Statistics

Estimating the user base of ff.net is difficult since people use their accounts in different ways and many accounts are completely inactive. FFN Statistics is a group project that attempts to collect and analyze account statistics gathered from the archive. The blog is a project of the Literate Union[76]

They collected account data and produced a table which shows that while ff.net had ~2.2 million accounts at the end of 2009 and is growing—gaining more accounts than are deleted each year—that growth rate has slowed in recent years.[77]

Some anecdotal statistical context: three months after the site's debut, there were 407 stories archived, 249 registered authors, and 76 categories. [78]

References

↑ "I'm very happy to announce that www.fanfiction.net is now officially open!!!!!! And we have done it 3 weekss [sic] ahead of projected finish date. While everyone trick-or-treated we were hard at working debugging the site. =)" -- www.fanfiction.net opens!!, November 3, 1998, post at alt.tv.simpsons

↑. According to the pottersues FAQ the term was coined in January 2002 in this blog post; Archive Link by Mooncalf/tsukikoushi when the site decreased its minimum age requirement from 18 to 13 as well as banning the NC-17 (MA) rating. (Accessed 2 November 2008)

↑These figures are based on the index pages as of February 22, 2010. Percentages may be skewed by large fandoms like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Twilight having both their book and movie forms listed under books.

↑These figures are based on the index pages as of 29 November 2013. The top four places remain unchanged since 2011, but Yu-Gi-Oh, Lord of the Rings, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have fallen off the top-ten list completely, to be replaced by Glee, Hetalia: Axis Powers, and Pokémon. See Top 20 Fandoms of 2010: Table 4 (Accessed February 19, 2011). As of 2013, story counts for the top ten are as follows: Harry Potter (665K), Naruto (348K), Twilight (214K), Inuyasha (111K), Glee (100.0K), Hetalia - Axis Powers (96.0K), Supernatural (88K), Bleach (75.6K), Kingdom Hearts (70.4K), Pokémon (67.1K).

↑All figures in the Types of Fandoms section are compiled from viewing the site as at February 2010.

↑These figures were generated on February 23, 2010. The number of fics visible when viewing the fandom doesn't match the total listed on the index page, and new works are constantly uploaded, so the totals and percentages are approximate. Language names are taken from the FF.Net dropdown.

↑ "Fanfiction.net's unexpected outage continues. Our best estimates indicate it could be down until the 8th-9th of August, depending on the exact nature of the problem." -- a repost on rec.arts.anime of an official FFN message, dated August 1, 2001

↑ Includes an ironic typo: "Here is a list of conducts that should always be observed: 1. Spell check all story and poetry. There is no excuse for not performing this duty. If you do not have a word processor that has the spell checking feature, use a search engine such as Google.com to find one." -- Version 11-20-2008, accessed July 18, 2011

↑On July 18, 2011, filtering the Screenplays category to Indonesian returns 1,335 results out of 2,515 in total.

↑A look at the Supernatural category on July 18, 2011 showed a J2 story on the first page of results.

↑ [April 19, 1999]: "Archive your fanfics on fanfiction.net and expand your audience reach.... Again, if you have any suggestions for the site just email me and I will do my best to meet your desires. Remember that your input shapes the future of fanfiction.net... Until next time, adios! Xing" -- alt.startrek.creative.erotica; archive link